Christmas with a LEGEND

MARY CROSBY OPENS UP ABOUT LIFE WITH BELOVED FESTIVE CROONER BING

- Paul Ewart

His back catalogue reads like a Christmas “best of” compilation. From ‘The Christmas Song’ to ‘Winter Wonderland’, the vocals of Bing Crosby are the sound of the season personified. But while the rest of us have had to make do with the legend’s recorded hits, Bing’s seven children had the real thing.

“My earliest memory is his voice,” Mary Crosby, 62, tells WHO. “I remember Dad was an amazing whistler, and so he would just wander through the house whistling, or he would sing. He’d take a melody that we all knew and write his own lyrics to it. Sometimes they’d be about us, or they’d make fun of his friends, or talking about his adventures,” she explains. “Music was always a part of our world, and it was a very joyous part of my childhood.”

Long regarded as the voice of Christmas, the hyperbole surrounding the iconic singer is well deserved. Not only is he the most recorded performer in history – one who has sold in excess of a billion records – but he also lays claim to ‘White Christmas’, a hit that has become the bestselling song of all time. Of course, given his status as a real-life Father Christmas, it stands to reason that the Yuletide season in the Crosby household was extra special.

“I always felt that everybody else in the world had one holiday and we got two!” says Mary with a laugh. “Because in November we would start rehearsing for the Bing Crosby family Christmas shows, which we did from when we were very young. So, we got to get out of school, to be together, and sing Christmas carols, which as children was such great fun,” she reveals.